Surviving capitalism (2006)

From Issue 20 of the World Socialist Review

If you and your family, friends and neighbors were the last people left on Earth, would you be able to survive, assuming access to fresh water, plants and animal life? As humans we have come a long way, but if we are to go much further we must reassess the direction we are taking in terms of survival and the quality of our lives. Few of us are unaware of the AIDS crisis in Africa, famines and wars worldwide, melting ice caps and ozone holes, yet we continue to follow the same well-trodden path which brought us these disasters.

Millennia ago, our ancestors lived crude and superstitious lives, but they were cooperative and self-sufficient. Over time a few learned to make implements out of metal rather than wood or bone and became highly respected for their skills. Indeed, they were sometimes regarded as magicians and treated like demigods. When some took their show on the road and traded with distant communities, they became the prototypes for the international capitalist. For the first time, farmers became dependent for their livelihood on implements made from materials from faraway places not accessible to them and by techniques of which they were totally ignorant.

Nowadays, we are all expected to hang by our individual own tails and have become entirely dependent on the finite resource which lies beneath the sands of Iraq. The farmers rely on it to grow and harvest our food; the shippers to transport it great distances; we use it to power our heat, light and entertainment sources and to provide the energy for the manufacture of our consumer goods; it illuminates our supermarkets, takes us to and from work and keeps us on-line. Now that it is about to be depleted, we are threatened with the increased use of nuclear power and even coal! Meanwhile, we are all subjected to the degradation of our air, the privatization of urban water supplies and the genetic modification of food without our permission.

Why do we continue to worship the pantheon of thieves and profiteers which is responsible for this mess when we can all share the Earth’s considerable resources without creating waste and pollution in the process? After all these eons, isn’t it about time we chose a more equitable and practical alternative — socialism? Clean energy is a realistic possibility and conspicuous consumption a worthless exercise in a society of free access for all. Such a society will not come without cooperation and encouragement, but if we work together and avoid exploitation, we may yet survive capitalism.

— Betty Pagnani